Counting Down

We are officially COUNTING DOWN to go get Silas!! After a whirlwind week last week, I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and give an update.

Our agency told us to prepare to travel around the first week of November...we really prayed that we would travel the week before that, but were prepared to wait that extra week.  But, God....

We got an email last Tuesday that our "meet Silas" date is October 23 and that we would need to be in Bogota on the 20....exactly TWO WEEKS! That afternoon was crazy as I finished up some paperwork that needed to go on to Colombia so we could get our official invite letter and book plane tickets. Once you're within that two week time frame, ticket prices go way up. We were able to get a pretty good deal on one-way tickets to Bogota. We did one way since we don't know our exact return date. Here are the schedule of events for the next several weeks...

Sunday, 10/18 - Jacob's parents arrive to stay with the kids while we're gone
Tuesday, 10/20 - Jacob and I leave fly out of New Orleans at 6 am and land in Bogota around 1 pm; meet and have dinner with our in country rep, Soraya, and our social worker, Beth (she's in country on business)
Wednesday, 10/21 - Fly to Cali, Colombia....the city/region where Silas currently lives
Thursday, 10/22 - Meet with all of his workers and caretakers at the orphanage
Friday, 10/23 - GET SILAS!!!!! Many of you have asked and, YES - we will leave with him that day.  We will be sort of like foster parents for him until our adoption decree is signed in court
Following 2 weeks - bonding period...at the end of this time, we will sign papers taking full custody of him and our paperwork will be filed in court where we will be assigned a judge to grant the adoption.
Following 3-4 weeks - We will fly back to Bogota to wait for our court date. Jacob will get Silas and I settled in our adoption hotel in Bogota for a couple of days and then he will return to the states to take care of Anna Beth, Lynnsie, and Creek. When we get our court date, Silas and I (accompanied by Soraya) will fly back to Cali to sign the papers for a quick day trip.
Final week in Colombia - medical and visa appointments to get permission to leave the country and come HOME!

So if you're following that, we will be in Colombia for a total of 5-7 weeks. Jacob will be there for the first two and Silas and I will be there an addition 3-4 by ourselves. This was a hard and somewhat scary (for me) decision to make - but the truth is, Silas and I will be just fine. We have an incredible team through Lifeline who are in Bogota and will be available for anything and will be an amazing support. I've also connected with several other Colombian adoptive moms will be in Bogota at the same time and playdates will occur.

Pray hardest for Silas - his world is about to be turned upside down.  Because he is deaf and has zero language, there is no way for the orphanage staff to prepare his little heart for what is taking place. Through his eyes and mind, two strange white people who look, smell, and sound funny are about to take away from the only thing he has ever known. The first many days will be horrible for him....it's just the reality. Adoption is hard and comes from tragic and broken situations....and more tragedy and trauma have to occur before the heart can begin to heal and understand love and family and safety. So please pray so hard for him.

Pray for our kiddos we're leaving behind for a short time - Anna Beth recently fell out of her favorite tree and broke her arm, Lynnsie's world is shaken with good things (but still shaken), and Creek is about to lose his "baby of the family/only boy/room to myself" status.

Big changes are coming our way and although the final outcome will be good - the goodness of that final outcome is many months away.

And now here's a super fun update...

We are FULLY FUNDED!!!!! Yes, you read that right...with less than 2 weeks left to travel to Colombia - the Lord fully funded our adoption through some final donations, a matching grant, and our Facebook auction! We had people ask us this past weekend if we needed more money and we were able to say, "No - God has fully provided!" We never doubted, but it is still so humbling to see all that He has done through the hearts of family, friends, and strangers.

Nine more days!!!!!!

Our Adoption: The Next Steps

So many of you asked us "What happens next?!" since we shared our joyous news of being matched with Silas.  This is not a short answer, so I'm going to greatly summarize it with a list. You're welcome :)

- Right now, we're waiting for our government to give us immigration permission specifically for Silas...we're hoping to receive this by the end of the week or early next week at the latest.
- Once we receive immigration approval, we will receive our "Come get Silas!" date from the orphanage...also called Encuentro. This should happen approximately 3-4 weeks after approval, we're still looking at the tail end of October or very beginning of November.
- During these 3-4 weeks, we apply for visas for ourselves and for Silas through the Colombian consulate here in the US and Colombia.
- We pack and prepare our kiddos hearts and our hearts to go to Colombia!!!
- The first 10-14 days in Colombia will be our integration/bonding period.  We will take physical custody of Silas within a day or so of arriving and he will never leave our arms again.
- After the initial bonding period, Jacob will return home to the kids and work and Silas and I will relocate to Bogota, Colombia to wait for our court date (approx. 3 -4 weeks after the bonding time is over)
- Once our court date arrives, Silas and I will return to his region and appear before a judge who sign our adoption decree and he becomes a legal and forever Coleman!
- We mad dash to several appointments over the next few days getting visa medical exams and all paperwork lined up to leave the country.
- Our estimated in-country time is 5-7 weeks...I don't even want to talk about it right now. Please just pray with us that it goes super fast.

So we still have lots to do and prepare for before this is all over and we are home forever as a family of 6...but that day will come and all of this will fade away and it will all be so very worth it!

Keep praying with us!!!!

SOLD - To the Highest Bidder

We're finally at the point where we can do our VERY LAST FUNDRAISER!! I said earlier last week, when I was telling you about the best phone call ever, that we still have about $3,500 remaining to raise before traveling in about 6-7 weeks to go get Silas and BRING HIM HOME!! (Sorry for all of the "all caps" but, y'all, I'm just so excited to be at this point :) )

Our very last fundraiser is going to be a Facebook Auction....these are so fun and I've participated in several both as a donor and as a bidder - and winner! Here's how it works.... 

Are you someone who...

loves to be crafty?

has their own home or online business like Etsy?

runs a business in town?

would like to purchase an item or gift card and donate it to the auction?

If so, and you would like to participate, we would LOVE a donation from your crafty-self or business or whatever donation you'd like to create for auction!

And we would love it if you know anyone who would like to donate to the auction - please share this information with them :) And, of course, when we start to advertise the auction in another week or so...share, share, SHARE on Facebook.  This could be a great way to get a head start on your Christmas shopping :)

 

I'll create a Facebook Page - be sure to "Like" and "Follow" to get all of the updates, pre-auction previews, and - of course - to participate or share our auction page!

 

We already have some great donations lined up...pillowcase and smock dresses, Woodhouse Gift card, amazing wreaths, giant inflatable rentals....just to name a few! well either arrange for pick-up or mail it item to the winning bidder!

The auction will start Monday, Oct 5 at 8 am and will end on Wednesday, Oct 7 @ 8 pm. A picture of each item up for bid will placed in an album on the event page, with info as to who donated - linking back to any business pages - as well as a starting bid amount. Bids will be placed in the comments section and all bids must increase by a minimum of $1. I'll use the "Facebook time" on each comment to determine when the winning bid was given. The winner will have 24 hours to respond or the next highest bidder will be awarded.

 

If you would like to donate or would like more information on donating, then just shoot me a message on Facebook or email me at jmacoleman@gmail.com.  We have about 20 donations so far...my hope is to have at least 30. All money raised in this auction with go towards the final expenses for our adoption. If we happen to exceed our remaining funding needs, anything extra raised will go towards comprehensive medical testing at the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham once we return from Colombia...more on that later.

Thanks so much for continuing to read and follow along on our journey - he's almost home, y'all!!!

Can We Really Do This?

There have been numerous times throughout our adoption process tht I've just had to stop and ask myself, "Are we sure this is the right path? Is this my plan, our plan, or God's plan? And can we really do this....can we really survive this ridiculous process and move forward as a family of 6 in the end?"

That's just how my brain works - I have to think and analyze and analyze again. There are times that all of that analyzing leads to anxiety and worry and there are times when it just leads to more concrete thoughts and assurance. I love when God uses my children for assurance during times that all of that analyzing is heading towards anxiety and fear.

When we arrived in Tennessee on Saturday night, after getting the best phone call ever, I was mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. I sent my kids to church with my parents the next morning and just decided to have some quiet, alone time with Jesus at my parents piano....bc that's where I do my best stress relieving and reenergizing. 

It was about 12:15 and I was in parents kitchen getting lunch ready, waiting for everyone to get back from church. At this point, I hadn't had a chance to talk to my parents bc the kids were around and my brain was just all mushy from overload the day before, but after my quiet, piano music filled morning with Jesus, I had worked out a plan to let my parents in on our news and potential decision. As I stood there over the stove, I thought, "Can we really do this? Can we really expect our children to learn sign language so they can communicate and have a relationship with the brother they've prayed so hard for? What if they just don't want to???"

Within seconds of having those thoughts, which are legitimate concerns when you're adopting a deaf child, my mom walked through the door and said, "Mist, I can't wait for you to hear what the girls got to see at church this morning!"

Right behind her were Anna Beth and Lynnsie - excitedly telling me about the "girls that were singing with their hands and it's so cool and it's called sign language and Gram said you used to do sign language when you were younger so can you please teach us, mommy?!"

You guys....I can't even make this stuff up. I was frozen in place with tear filled eyes and I just smiled....a. big, knowing, and understanding smile....and I said, "I would love to teach you."

By the end of the week they knew most of their ABC's in sign language and soon after, we learned of our favorite ASL resource for children, Signing Time. This resource is amazing and was created by a mom who had a daughter who was born deaf. Over the last 8 months, we've checked out videos from the library and watched the episodes available on Netflix. It's been amazing to watch the kids pick it up so quickly! 

The experience my girls had watching the youth girls "sing with their hands" was an answered prayer in so many ways...

1) It immediately answered the questions of my heart - yes, we could teach our children sign language so they can communicate and have a relationship with their brother

2) It introduced our family to one of the most beautiful songs with lyrics that are full of truth...the song is by Lauren Daigle and it's called How Can It Be?

3) It allowed us to introduce sign language to our children and begin to teach them, without risking their hearts to attaching to a little boy that we had no guarantees from the orphanage that they would allow us to adopt. 

We are so thankful for all of the ways that God has assured us these past few years and especially these last 8 months, but this one - by far - is my very, very most favorite :)

The Best Phone Call Ever!!

First of all....let me just say that God is good. On the hardest and longest and most frustrating days, He is still and always good. Nothing changes that. He does incredible things in His perfect timing - whether we like it, agree with it, or understand it. He is God and He is good.

 

Our adoption in 2015 didn't start out very well when we found out in January that for the past entire year, we'd been on the wrong waiting list in Colombia. There were many unknowns - how long would it take to fix this? will we be put at the end of the correct list or put where we should be after waiting an entire year? what is our real number on the waiting list? At first, I was discouraged and down right ticked.  But slowly, I remembered it's His timing and the waiting list number just doesn't really matter...#1 or #301....my son would be my son when the Lord knew it was the right time to bring us all together. So that was the end of that.  However, we never found out what our new waiting list number was, because...

 

On February 14, 2015 at 8:30 in the morning I got a phone call, and then a text when I missed the call, from our social worker, Beth. She "casually" asked me in the text to give her a call - she just had a quick question for me.  But it was Saturday morning and that meant something big.  I called her and she said she asked me how open we were to a child with hearing loss. I told her we were open to a child who had minor hearing loss all the way up to complete deafness. That's when she told me she had the file of an almost 2 year old little boy, with profound deafness - did I want to see it? I told her sure - send it to me and when Jacob woke up, we'd talk about it.

 

The thing was - I was in the middle of packing me and the kids to go to Anna Beth's Upward game, then hit the road to Tennessee for a week because it was Mardi Gras in New Orleans and this is just what we do. And when we do that, we get trapped....I mean iced in....at my parents house bc the Ice Storm of the century always comes through when we're there for Mardi Gras. You're welcome, teachers and school kids of West Tennessee :) And Jacob was still asleep because, as a police officer, he works pretty much non-stop during Mardi Gras. At this point he'd been asleep about an hour and a half. I decided to wait until 10 - letting him sleep until the very last minute before the kids and I had to leave.

 

I woke up him and when he was just barely conscious, I said "Beth called." He was fully awake at that point! I gave him the quick rundown and showed him little man's picture - and that's when I saw it.  The new daddy look. As scared and unsure as my heart was after what we'd experienced not a year before...I knew that God was leading us to this sweet boy. I sent his info, in Spanish, to my friend who lives in Colombia and speaks Spanish and she called to give me a summary of his history and needs. Everything was clear cut and after a lot of prayer, Jacob and I decided to submit a Letter of Intent to his orphanage.

 

And that's when things got excruciatingly hard on our hearts. But we continued to trust and the Lord continued to show us that this was the boy we were supposed to pursue, to love, and to desire to parent.  For the sake of time, here's a quick timeline of the past 8 months:

 

Feb. 15 - LOI submitted

March 30 - Dossier finally mailed for transfer from ICBF to orphanage

April 14 - Happy birthday, little man!!!

April 23 - Dossier finally arrives at orphanage (because Colombia mail....)

May 7 - Orphanage loves us, but wants us to redo some things in our dossier 

May 21 - Orphanage finally tells us what they want us to fix (because Colombia....)

May 21 - June 4 - we mad dash every filling out forms, notarizing, and mailing off for apostille in Tennessee & DC

June 24 - everything's mailed back to social worker in Alabama, who immediately sends it on to Colombia

July 9 - we leave for a much needed weekend trip to see our very good friends, the Woods, in Georgia

July 10 - social worker calls and tells us orphanage received our updates, but now wants us to update our FBI clearances, physicals, and proof of employment letters (also notarizing and having apostilled)

July 15 - get started on all of these updates

July 21 - everything's in the mail, straight to Colombia

July 29 - everything arrives back to the orphanage after going through translations by our in country rep

July 29 - 30 - they meet every Thursday, at some point, so we could hear any time Thursday or Friday on their decision...we hear nothing

August 6 - 7 - we hear nothing

August 13 - 14 - we hear nothing

August 20 - 21 - we hear nothing

August 22 - Jacob leaves for 3 weeks of national guard training; we had decided that if we weren't matched by the time he left, we would have to withdraw our LOI, but when that week came, neither of us felt a peace about that...we decided to wait until he got back and if there was no news at that point, we would withdraw. We had the support of our social workers on this decision, as well.

August 28 - my phone rings at 6 pm...."Beth @ Lifeline" on the caller ID

 

"Hey, Misti!! This is the best phone call ever because it's official!! They just called us to tell us you're so perfect to be his family and they love you and they officially matched you today!"

 

You guys....I was standing in my friend, Mary's, front yard while she and her husband were inside fixing dinner for the kids and I and another friend and her family.  I couldn't speak. My heart was about to explode. Every time I opened my mouth I just started crying even more. Big, giant, happy tears. All of the frustration...all of the fear of having to walk away...all of the grief and pain we felt every single day - especially Thursday and Friday - for the past 8 months completely vanished. Because he was now our son. Forever.

 

Thankfully, I was able to get through to Jacob immediately and tell him, but we decided to wait and tell the kids together when he got home...so for TWO WEEKS I had to keep this secret! We told a few close friends and our families, of course, because I surely would have exploded if not :)

 

So what happens now? 

 

Our immigration paperwork arrives in DC today and that should take about 3 - 4 weeks, then we will travel about 3 - 4 weeks after that....so hopefully we will travel the end of October/early November. Jacob and I will both go for the initial bonding time of 7 - 10 days and then he will return to work. Our kids are in school and we've decided it's best for them to stay in their normal routine since life is going to be kind of upside down for a little bit. I'll stay another 2 - 4 weeks after Jacob leaves finalizing everything. I'll write more on that process later.

 

Our family continues to learn sign language.  Since our son is profoundly deaf, American Sign Language will be his way of communicating.  We've been learning several signs through the incredible children's video series, Signing Times, but our kids didn't really know why we were doing it - they thought it was just for fun.  And I'll be writing an incredible God-story blog on that in the next few days, too.  But now Jacob and I will be doing a 25 DVD ASL curriculum called Learn and Master ASL...I'm 3 lessons in and it's amazing!

 

We apply for the very last grant that we qualify for and do our very last fundraiser...a Facebook Adoption Auction! I'll be sharing more information on that later, but a quick summary - we're asking for donations from anyone who is crafty, has a business in your town, Etsy store, work from home business, or would like to donate a gift card or item and we will auction them off through Facebook and the highest bidder will win! We still have about $3,500 left to raise or be awarded in grants and we are still trusting God as He has provided everything we need so far.

 

We finish up all training, apply for visas, book our flights and hotels, and wait for the day when I can hold my son, Silas John Coleman, forever!! 

 

If the timeline works out as quickly as it can, Silas and I should be home by Thanksgiving!!

 

Please, please, please join us in prayer for Silas - that his heart would be prepared for all of the change that is coming his way in the next several weeks, that everything now will move quickly and smoothly, for our kids as they prepare to be without us for a few weeks and welcome home their little brother, for Jacob's mom who will be coming to stay with our kids while we're gone, and for Jacob and I - as we prepare for the incredible honor and blessing it is to be called mommy and daddy by this sweet, precious little boy. 

Taco Dinner Fundraiser

We had our incredible Taco Dinner Fundraiser this past weekend and y'all...we are overwhelmed with how amazing it was.  There really aren't words to describe it, so I'll leave it to the pictures.

Love, love, love this family...the Singletary's...who planned and prepared this incredible day.

Only 1 Coleman kiddo missing...

Our friends even cleaned up our kitchen

In the middle of packing her family to move 2 states away in a few days, it was super special to have her stand next to me during this event.  She's been a major rock and source of sunshine in my life.

Photo credits to this gem!! Loved her last minute idea of taking pictures for us - too perfect!! 

Mr. Tim - the Taco Shell Master.  He was a "tiny" bit excited to use his new toy.

Mrs. Kelly, the Taco Whisperer - loved cooking and prepping with her...and appreciated her attempt at teaching me how to properly dice tomatoes (and the gentle way she suggested I bag them instead!)

Prep work started a few days earlier - so blessed to have friends give up their days off!

Especially loved spending "real life" time with this girl!!! 

In summary, this was the Church in action y'all.  All day long.  It was amazing and incredible and we loved every minute of it.  To see so many friends and church family giving so much time to planning and prepping, baking desserts, working that day by setting up, serving, watching kids, taking pictures (photo bombing pictures for a good laugh later on), ordering meals, donating, tearing down, and cleaning up...it just does this family's heart a whole lot of good.  Someday our little man is gonna begin to process the first chapters of his life and while he's doing that, we'll be able to show him how, at the same time that he was alone and without family....we were all here...loving, waiting, and working for him.  I wish I could list every single person by name, but I'm far to afraid I would leave someone off.

And I'm sure you're curious as to how much we raised...well, again...mind blown. Overwhelmed.

I told God selling 200 dinner boxes was gonna be a long shot.  I'm sure He laughed out loud knowing we would sell between 325 - 350.

I thought it would be incredible if we made it anywhere near $2000.

And all the while, He was planning to provide $3,671.

All through our sweet friends and church family.

All for our little boy.

If you want to see all of the pictures from that day, click HERE

Adoption Happenings in 2015

I think I said it in my last post...I've really stunk at updating you guys the past several months.  There just hasn't been a lot happening, so it feels kinda dumb to post an update.  Make sense? Some days it does to me, some days it doesn't. Either way - here we are now, nearing the last week of March 2015.

If you had asked me in January 2013 (when we started the process) where we'd be in March 2015, I would've confidently told you that we would've been home with our son for several months.  But God had other plans that apparently include us waiting for much longer than anticipated.

But our wait is nothing compared to the wait on the other end of adoption.  The wait where it's babies, toddler, children, pre-teens, and teenagers...waiting for someone to come for them.  We wait with friends and family holding us up on our weakest and hardest days.  But them? Many times there's no one.  No one holding, encouraging, telling them to "Just hold on...God's got a family for you." No one.

So we wait...longer than expected...but we still wait with hope and encouragement and assurance that there is a sweet and precious little boy in Colombia who needs us to be his family.  It's not an honor that we take lightly - being allowed to parent a precious child like this.

The extra wait is sad, but there's also some fun and exciting happenings, as well.

Our agency, Lifeline Children's Services, recently hired a new representative on the ground in Colombia.  We have heard incredible things about Soraya and we're so excited to be working with her now, as well! She has a lot of connections with private orphanages (or casas) and now our agency is able to work not only through ICBF for connecting families and children, but also through several private casas, as well.  This is huge, y'all,  Huge!! Our social worker recently visited Colombia and returned with a LOT of files of precious kiddos waiting to be advocated for and adopted. Please keep this transition to our new rep and all of these new partnerships in your prayers and praise God with us for making these things happen!!

Our sweet friends, Tim and Kelly Singletary, make these world-famous (well, at least Slidell famous) tacos.  Y'all...you can eat these things 3 days later and it's still the best taco you've ever allowed your mouth to withhold!! Well, they came to us about a week ago and said they wanted to do a Taco Dinner fundraiser for us. Um...perfection!!! Yummy tacos and just being loved in this way...y'all, it's way too incredible.  And it's even better - our Sunday School class is partnering with them and providing the desserts for the dinner boxes! But that's not all, oh no, that is not all (Cat in the Hat, anyone?)...Tim and Kelly's care group have joined in and said "We'll cover the cost of the food!" So that means that ever single dollar of every single dinner box sold goes straight into our adoption account.  How great is our God?!?!

So here's the deal, Slidellians.  I've created an event on Facebook....Coleman Family Taco Dinner Adoption Fundraiser and tried to scroll through my friend list and invite every Slidell resident...if I missed your name I am so sorry, but you most definitely invited so head on over and let us know how many dinner boxes you want! Here's the details, thanks to my incredibly talented graphic designer sister, Maley, at Made by Maley (hop over, check her out, like her page)

Also, it'd be so awesome if any of you Slidellians could share the event on your Facebook page, as well and invite your friends.

Or gather your friends together for a dinner party, birthday party, "I Miss Football Season" party...whatever...and grab some tacos to go with your fun evening!

All that remains of our fees are our traveling expenses...airline tickets and hotel/food/translation accommodations while we are in Colombia. We know that this fundraiser will knock off some of that $8k...but what we really want - is for the people who are doing this for our little family by cooking, helping out, baking, and attending to know just how much we love you.  I have no idea, honestly, how we're ever going to fully convey to our little guy the amount of love that so many people put forth to bring him home!!

So make your Saturday night, April 11 plans with us and help us bring One More Home!!